Elliot is one month old!

On December 27th, Elliot made one month old. It's crazy to watch him each day knowing that he's still supposed to be in my belly. His cheeks have gotten so chubby and his legs are filling out a bit. I still have no updated weight on him, but I know he's definitely getting bigger. Still tiny though :). He fits into newborn clothes (some are pretty loose) and has officially outgrown all of his preemie outfits. He still spends most his days sleeping and does not like much stimulation. I attribute it to the fact that he was a preemie. He does like his swing with soft music though.

Christmas 2012

I am on a blogging roll! haha. That's what happens with no work. Love it! This year, Christmas was great as usual. It was the first Christmas in our house so my family came here to celebrate. It's just easier for us with the kids. With all that's been going on, I barely got all the shopping done in time, but I did it! Elliot didn't get very much this year (especially since we just had a shower), but he got a few little toys, some clothes, and a sleep sak. Andrew and I got a lot of things for the new house, as well as giftcards to go shopping.. Isaac racked up! He got a lot of Spiderman and Batman toys, a train table, some board games, games for his Vtech and Leapfrog, a camera, and more. As usual, we opened up presents at midnight at our house. The next day we went to Nanny and Poppy's for brunch and opened up more presents. My extended family had a get together later that day, but we skipped it. Still not crazy about Elliot being around huge crowds.

We are so blessed to have such amazing families to spend time with. And even though Elliot is still supposed to be in my belly, we are so grateful that he was home with us for Christmas instead of in the hospital.

Baby Shower/Elliot's Welcome Home Party :)

Originally, my baby shower was planned for early December. Ashley and Summer had booked their flights from Houston and invitations were sent out. However, things changed when I had Elliot early-his birthday was on a Tuesday and the shower was planned for that Saturday. Needless to say, the date was pushed back. In fact, he was sent home from the hospital just in time to make it to the shower. We had a great turnout and everything was perfect! Summer and Isaac had a blast helping to open presents and spending together.

Thank you so much to my hosts, my mother and sister in law for hosting such a beautiful shower. And thank you to all my friends and family who were able to make it. Everyone was so patient about the date when we had to reschedule.Our family is truly blessed.

Isaac's Christmas Program

The day after Elliot was discharged from the hospital, Isaac's class had it's Christmas program. Elliot came with us but we hung out in the back and completely covered...not the place to bring a preemie during flu/RSV season! This year instead of doing the whole school at once, they did one class at a time. Each student (or group of students) were highlighted during each song. Originally, Isaac was supposed to  be Santa Claus and had one line. You guessed it, "ho ho ho." haha. But he fought tooth and nail until he got out of it. He ended up being a Christmas tree decorator along with some other students. Isaac was so excited to see us there-Nanny and Grandma were able to come as well. Here are some pics and video. My favorite was when they entered the church and he just lit up and was waving at us!

Big Brother Fun

With all that's been going on between the bedrest and Elliot in the NICU, Isaac was acting out a bit. We worked extra hard to do some fun stuff with him to make sure he knows we most certainly did not forget about him :). While Elliot was still in the NICU, daddy and Isaac had a fun day at the park. He also had a fundraiser at Chuck E. Cheese for his school and he spent the evening acting like a wild man with his friends. Then Grandma and I took him to a Christmas Village where we watched the girls from my old dancing school perform their Christmas performance. Isaac loved that because they had fake snow and a clown making balloon animals and other fun stuff-he got a bow and arrow :). He also had a blast when we decorated the house for Christmas before Elliot came home.

Since Elliot has been home, Isaac has been the sweetest most helpful big brother. He is so helpful with getting diapers, giving Elliot his paci, and even rocking his little rocker. He loves to give him hugs and kisses and watch me give him his bath. I can't wait to see them grow up together.

Home at Last!

Sorry for not updating sooner, but it's for a good reason! Elliot came home last Wednesday after a 15 day stay in the NICU. Things were very busy while we finished getting the house ready for him to get home. The doctors were so pleased with his progress in the NICU. When we started to talk about discharge, they let me breastfeed as much as he wanted during the day. Then, they stopped fortifying the breastmilk that he was getting in the bottle. This is good because they wanted to see if he could gain weight on straight breastmilk. They knew that I wasn't planning on giving him formula and that I wanted to nurse him. For two days he took enough breastmilk to have adequate dirty and wet diapers as well as gain weight. Then they took his tube out and got his discharge stuff ready. First they gave him his hepatitis B vaccine and a Synagis shot (for RSV). He was able to qualify for Synagis because of the time of year as well as his gestational age at birth.

They also did a hearing test. This is done for premature babies or other babies that meet certain risk factors. He passed on one ear but didn't pass on the other. He's getting retested on Thursday. The docs told me that it can be anything such as fluid in his ear, so I'm not worried about anything yet. And lastly, he had his circumcision and passed his carseat test. On discharge day, he weighed 4 lbs 13 oz. Here are some pics from discharge day.

At his checkup yesterday, he already weighed 5 lbs 4 oz! Dr. Defusco (his pediatrician) was impressed! He has been nursing like a champ around the clock. He loves to sleep during the day and wakes about every 1 1/2 hours to nurse during the night. He's a very very good baby :). Here are some of my favorite pics of him since he's been home. I have a lot of cute ones with his big brother, but I'll save that for another post.

A Successful Latch!

Today I was able to spend a lot of time in the NICU with Elliot. I was trying to make his morning feeding, but I hit a lot of traffic going into town. He took all 35 ml from the nurse by mouth for that feeding. At his 11:00 feeding, they let me nurse him. And he successfully latched on and took milk! He nursed for a combined total of about 15 minutes and after each breast he burped. Just like yesterday, they checked his belly and drew up at least 10 ml from his stomach (that's the size syringe she used-so may have been more). It's great to know that he's interested in nursing and that he's getting milk :). However, they still gave him his full feediing into his feeding tube. That's fine with me-will just help him to gain weight.

Today I was able to touch base with Dr. Barkmeyer (the NICU attending on service). He said that Elliot didn't do as well as they expected with his feeding yesterday (he wouldn't take his feeds at night). So they're going up to 38 ml every 3 hours to help with weight gain, and will monitor how he does the rest of the day. He said that if he does poorly, then they're going down on the attempts per day (right now it's 4). He said that sometimes when we push them too hard, it backfires. So please say a prayer that he takes the remainder of his attempts today. I completely understand what he's saying, but it's discouraging to hear that we may have to go backwards.

On another note, I got pooped on as I was changing his diaper...then as I was trying to clean it, I got peed on. I forgot how these little boys are! No matter how little! :)

Overall, today was a happier day for me. I think it's the first time that I didn't leave the hospital crying. Nor did I cry myself the entire way across the bridge.  As hard as this is being away from him, Andrew and I are so incredibly grateful for how well he's doing. We are so thankful that my doctor was proactive and I believe ultimately made the right call. 

We've been getting ready for him to come home. We've got the crib put together now and lots of clothes, blankets, etc washed. We've also been spending a lot of time getting the house ready for Christmas. This is my favorite time of year and I just hope that soon we'll have yet another reason to love it!!